Once again, Klassik.tv covered Classical:NEXT, including interviews with various delegates and guests. Below you can see the recorded keynote from Yannick Nèzet-Séguin and an interview with Martin Hoffman. To see more interviews and to read further, visit the Klassik.tv site here.

Keynote Speeches at Past Editions

Klassik.TV Interview with Thomas Hampson

This interview was made right after Thomas Hampson held his keynote speech at the Classical:NEXT 2014 opening at the MAK Austrian Museum of Applied Arts in Vienna.

Keynote Speaker at Classical:NEXT 2014 - Thomas Hampson

Thomas Hampson held the keynote speech at the opening of Classical:NEXT 2014 in Vienna, 14 May 2014. As the American star baritone puts it himself:

“I am very honored and excited to offer the Keynote address at the Classical:NEXT conference in Vienna. This is a foresightful initiative that brings people together from all over the world to explore new horizons of appreciation and understanding of the classical music idiom. As an Artist and passionate advocate for the Arts, I look forward to embracing those challenges together.”

The Informed Performance

The culture warriors of the digital generation

More than ever before, we have the opportunity – and, for that matter, the responsibility – to invite our audiences to explore the background behind our most valued musical treasures, to understand their languages and origins. Developments in technology are providing unprecedented access to the world of the musicians, performers, presenters, academics, journalists and authors who shape the classical music idiom. What was, for generations, a rarefied community is now a lively forum for the curious. And if we can so eas ily open the doors and windows on performances of classical music, we must ask ourselves: how well are we answering the question of “why is it classical”? The digital generation is re-shaping ownership of the arts and humanities within our society, and we must constantly re-develop our ability as artists to help define their heritage.

Biography Thomas Hampson:

Thomas Hampson enjoys a singular international career as an opera singer, recording artist, and ambassador of American song, and maintains an active interest in research, education, musical outreach, and technology. The American baritone has performed in all the world’s most important concert halls and opera houses with many renowned singers, pianists, conductors, and orchestras.

Recently honored as a Metropolitan Opera Guild “Met Mastersinger” and inducted into both the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and Gramophone’s 2013 “Hall of Fame,” Hampson is one of the most respected, innovative, and sought-after soloists performing today. He has won worldwide recognition for his thoughtfully researched and creatively constructed programs, including those in his celebrated “Song of America” project. One of the most important interpreters of German Romantic song, he employs the art of song to promote intercultural dialogue and understanding through the Hampsong Foundation.

In the 2013-14 season, Hampson looks forward to making his role debut as the eponymous antihero of Berg’s Wozzeck at the Metropolitan Opera. He reprises his star turn in the title role of Simon Boccanegra at the Vienna State Opera, and revisits such signature parts as Amfortas in Parsifal at Lyric Opera of Chicago; Giorgio Germont in La traviata at the Bavarian State Opera; Mandryka in Arabella at the Salzburg Festival; and Scarpia in Tosca at both the Deutsche Oper Berlin and London’s Royal Opera House. In the concert hall, he opens the season in performances of Eisler’s Ernste Gesänge with Christian Thielemann and the Staatskapelle Dresden, and looks forward to singing Brahms, Schubert, and Wolf on a twelve-stop European tour with the Amsterdam Sinfonietta.